Charlotte Perkins is seven years old and can't wait to grow up - if only she could decide what she wanted to be!

Luckily, no dream is too big for little Lottie Perkins!

Emerging readers will fall in love with this adorable and collectable new series from award-winning Australian author Katrina Nannestad. Includes super-cute illustrations by the talented Makoto Koji, plus bonus sticker outfits!

Lottie Perkins, Fashion Designer

ABC/Harper Collins, 2018

'SO MUCH TO LOVE!'

- Total Girl

Our class is learning the three times table.

But I'm not listening.

I'm designing a dress.

A fabulous dress for Mrs Dawson.

My name's Charlotte, but you can call me Lottie. I'm a fashion designer.

At least, that's my thing this week.

Charlotte Perkins is seven years old and can't wait to grow up - if only she could decide what she wanted to be!

Luckily, no dream is too big for little Lottie Perkins!

Emerging readers will fall in love with this adorable and collectable new series from award-winning Australian author Katrina Nannestad. Includes super-cute illustrations by the talented Makoto Koji, plus bonus sticker outfits!

OUT NOW!

The Girl, the Dog and the Writer in Provence

HE'S A VAGUE NOVELIST. SHE'S A SHY AND UNUSUAL CHILD. TOGETHER, THEY'RE TRAVELLING THE WORLD, ONE BOOK AT A TIME.

Freja, Tobias and Finnegan are back for an all-new adventure through the countryside of Provence.

When Freja and Tobias arrive in Claviers, it feels like home. The hilltop village is surrounded by olive groves, lavender fields and drifts of red poppies. The market square hides a world-famous patisserie and an antique merry-go-round. Pippin, their precocious young neighbour, and Vivi, the beautiful chef, fill their lives with chatter and laughter and love.

For a moment, the girl, the dog and the writer are happy. But a spate of criminal activity casts a cloud over the village. Freja is determined to solve the mystery and uncover the villain, but the closer she gets, the more impossible things seem to become…

CBCA Notable Book for Younger Readers, 2019.

Claviers - a beautiful hilltop village in Provence.

Here and below you can see some photos of Claviers and the surrounding area of Provence. This is where the girl, the dog and the writer have their latest adventure.

A terraced olive grove at the edge of Claviers.

The ancient stone chapel , Claviers.

The Church of St Sylvestre, Claviers. The bell towers in Provence have wire cages on top so that the Mistral winds can pass right through.

Claviers, Provence - the Church of St Sylvestre in the background.

Lovely faded shutters, Claviers.

Town square, Bargemon.

The Gorge du Verdon, Provence.

Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, a delightful village tucked away at the base of the mountains. You can see the chapel perched high above the town.

The Girl, the Dog and the Writer - Series

A new series about family, friendship and finding yourself. Includes travel, adventure, action, crime, mystery and ... romance.

Keep watch for the second book in the series, The Girl, the Dog and the Writer in Provence, due for release in November, 2018.

The Girl, the Dog and the Writer in Rome (ABC/Harper Collins, 2017)

For the first ten years of Freja's life, she and her mother Clementine have roamed the Arctic in search of zoological wonders. Happy, content, together. Freja and Clem. Clem and Freja.

But now, everything is changing, and Clementine must send Freja away to live with her old friend Tobias, a best-selling crime writer and, quite possibly, the most absent-minded man on earth.

Tobias isn't used to life with a child, and Freja isn't used to people at all, but together they'll stumble into an Italian adventure so big that it will change things forever...

This is the first book in a new series about family, friendship and finding yourself.

CBCA Notable Book for Younger Readers, 2018.

Long-listed for 2018 ABIA Awards.

Here you can browse at a few photos of Rome.

The Colosseum

The author gossiping with Italian pigeons

The market at Campo de Fiori

The Trevi Fountain

Tiny three-wheeled truck

A bit like the one Roberto drives.

The Spanish Steps

A street scene

The tiny car is a Fiat.

A little place of worship

The Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.

Hanging the washing out to dry in Trastevere

The Fountain of Neptune in Piazza Navona

A deliciously crumbling building

A cheeky Italian pigeon

A street view

A theatre amidst ruins

A piazza surrounded by ochre apartment buildings

Lottie Perkins - Series

Emerging readers will fall in love with this adorable and collectable new series.

Charlotte Perkins is seven years oldand can’t wait to grow up – if only she coulddecide what she wanted to be!

Luckily, no dream is too big for little Lottie Perkins!

Lottie Perkins, Ballerina (ABC/Harper Collins, 2018)

I'm wearing a glittering tutu and a sparkling tiara.I pirouette. Three times.

And I don't even trip.

My name's Charlotte, but you can call me Lottie. I'm a ballerina.

At least, that's my thing this week.

Charlotte Perkins is seven years old and can't wait to grow up - if only she could decide what she wanted to be!

Luckily, no dream is too big for little Lottie Perkins!

Lottie Perkins, Pop Singer - COMING SOON (19/11/2018)

The crowd cheers. Lights flash.

I sing into the microphone at the top of my lungs.

I'm rocking this song!

My name's Charlotte, but you can call me Lottie. I'm a pop singer.

At least, that's my thing this week.

Charlotte Perkins is seven years old and can't wait to grow up - if only she could decide what she wanted to be!

Luckily, no dream is too big for little Lottie Perkins!

Lottie Perkins, Fashion Designer - COMING SOON (19/11/2018)

Our class is learning the three times table.

But I'm not listening.

I'm designing a dress.

A fabulous dress for Mrs Dawson.

My name's Charlotte, but you can call me Lottie. I'm a fashion designer.

At least, that's my thing this week.

Charlotte Perkins is seven years old and can't wait to grow up - if only she could decide what she wanted to be!

Luckily, no dream is too big for little Lottie Perkins!

Olive of Groves - Series

A charming and hilarious series that will keep you giggling, gasping and sighing with delight.

Olive of Groves (ABC/Harper Collins, 2015)

Olive has always dreamed of attending boarding school, but Mrs Groves' Boarding School for Naughty Boys, Talking Animals and Circus Performers is not what she expected. To tell the truth, dear reader, it is not what anyone expected!

The headmistress is completely bonkers and Pig McKenzie, school bully and all-round nasty swine, is determined to make Olive's life unbearable.

Olive, however, is clever, sweet and kind, and soon gains the loyalty and devotion of three rats, a short-sighted moose, a compulsive liar and a goose who faints at the sight of cherries.

But will friendship and wits be enough when Pig McKenzie puts his Truly Wicked Plan into gear? Or will Olive be cast out of Groves forever?

Shortlisted for the 2016 Indie Book Awards.

Shortlisted for the category of Best Designed Children's Fiction Book in the Australian Book Designers Association Awards, 2016. Designed by Hazel Lam.

Olive of Groves and the Great Slurp of Time (ABC/Harper Collins, 2016)

Olive is gobsmacked. Basil Heffenhuffenheimer has just hiked out of the Black Forest in 1857 and into Mrs Groves' Boarding School for Naughty Boys, Talking Animals and Circus Performers. When he offers to take Olive into the past, she cannot resist a time-travelling adventure. After all, what could possibly go wrong? Plenty, dear reader. Plenty!When Olive and her friends return to the present with a hungry dinosaur, an Elizabethan pirate and a scissor-happy servant boy, strange and disturbing things start to happen at Groves. Furthermore, 'new' student, Pigg McKenzie, is taking an uncomfortable interest in the dangers and disasters of time travel. Can Basil and Olive keep control of their adventures, or will the Time Slurp and a certain villainous pig have their wicked way?

This is the second book in the Olive of Groves series.

Olive of Groves and the Right Royal Romp (ABC/Harper Collins, 2016)

The Queen is coming to Mrs Groves' Boarding School for Naughty Boys, Talking Animals and Circus Performers for tea! Nothing, absolutely nothing, could possibly spoil this right royal moment.

Except for the return of scheming villain, Pig McKenzie ... and the arrival of a strange, harsh woman called Thistlebloom ... and the fact that the Inspector of Schools has promised to close the doors of Groves forever if the Queen's visit does not run smoothly ...

My husband is a Dane and many years ago, we lived on a Christmas tree farm in Denmark. When I decided to write a story set in another time and culture, Denmark seemed the perfect setting. Beyond being familiar, it is a charming country that has so much of the fairy tale about it even today – snowy winters, delicious sweet treats, windmills, thatched cottages, animals living in barns and quaint folk dancing.

Setting my story way out on the Danish island of Bornholm enabled me to take my young character, Inge Maria, to an isolated place where her sense of loss and loneliness would be magnified. It also opened the way for delightful culture clashes. Inge Maria must learn to cope with the change from city life in Copenhagen with a free-spirited mother, to quiet island life amongst a conservative people.

Hans Christian Andersen was, of course, Danish. I read many of his fairy tales before and during the writing of When Mischief Came to Town. What an amazing range of characters, plot, humorous commentary and morals in his tales! They are truly inspiring.

Inge Maria Jensen, it seems, agrees with me. She loves reading Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales and often lives in a fantasy world where she converses with pigs and teapots and spoons. She longs to share the joy of stories with others. And her own story is a type of fairy tale in which she travels through loss and grief to a richer, happier life.

Fairy Tale Snow

This is an old photo of my two boys (now grown up) on a family holiday to Denmark in 2003. You can see the young Christmas trees in the background.

Fairy Tale House

This is my husband showing our sons his childhood home in Dollerup, Denmark.

The Original Book

When Mischief Came to Town was first released in Australia in 2013 under the title The Girl Who Brought Mischief.

Hey, is that ...?

This is me on my first day of school, a long, long time ago. I think I look a little like the girl on the cover of my Australian book.

Red Dirt Diaries - Series

Hilarious and heart-warming, the diaries of 11 year old Blue (Trudy) Weston recount the day to day joys and challenges of life in the Australian outback - living on a wheat and sheep farm and attending a tiny two-teacher school.

Red Dirt Diaries (ABC/Harper Collins, 2010)

Blue Weston’s life is spiralling out of control.

· Her parents are sending her to boarding school next year.

· Her mad twin brothers are building pig chariots in the back shed.

· Her best friend has been abducted by zombies and replaced with a boy crazy tween.

· And then there’s the drought that’s showing no signs of ending soon …

It’s New Year’s Day and Blue has resolved to keep a diary of the year’s events. It will be another hard year of dust storms and drought on her family’s farm – with the odd leech attack, rocket launch and bagpipe-loving pig thrown in just for fun.

Shortlisted for the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards 2011 and the West Australian Young Readers’ Book Award 2012.

Given a five star review in Good Reading magazine (July 2011) and a recommended reading age of 8 to 88.

Red Dirt Diary (ABC/Harper Collins, 2010)

First edition.

Red Dirt Diaries - Blue About Love (ABC/Harper Collins, 2012)

I’m going to be a bridesmaid.

Mat, Lynette and me.

Long, pink shiny dresses and flowers in our hair.

Leading Miss McKenzie down the aisle to disaster.

I think I’m going to puke …

When Blue’s favourite teacher announces she’s engaged, Blue thinks she must have lost her mind. Why would Miss McKenzie want to get married? Especially to someone called James Linley Welsh-Pearson!

Can Blue stop the wedding in time or will Miss McKenzie leave Hardbake Plains … forever?

Younger Readers Notable Book 2013, The Children’s Book Council of Australia